Smithsonian.com

Statue of Liberty-West

By
Maggie Frank

smithsonian.com
April 2, 2007

Some fresh

ridiculousness greeted me with my morning scan of the newspapers on Sunday. A former media mogul is proposing a plan for a monument to humanity, a bronze twice a tall as
Niagara Falls.
The monument would be accompanied by a "museum of human history," and the project would be realized next to the Port of Long Beach, near the

Queen Mary. Price tag? $250 million.
Of course, Karen Tyler Barnes assured the
LA Times that the complex could bring in as much as $500 million a year to the region. An affiliated think tank would tackle problems as varied as poverty, hunger, homelessness and education. "We need to find solutions to problems outside of war and violence," Barnes told the
Times. No taxpayer money has been pledged yet.
One thing's for sure: That's gotta be a pretty big museum.

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